CLEARY, KATE M. (1863-1905)

Photograph of Kate M. Cleary

Detailing the life of small-town pioneers, Kate
M. Cleary wrote novels, stories, sketches, and
poems about Nebraska in the late 1800s. Born
on August 22, 1863, in Richibucto, New Brunswick,
Canada, she moved with her mother and
two brothers in 1880 to Chicago, where the
whole family wrote to support themselves. In
1884 she married Michael Cleary, and the couple
moved to the newly founded village of
Hubbell, Nebraska. While in Hubbell, the
Clearys had six children, losing two daughters
within a year of each other. The family moved
back to Chicago in 1898.

After nearly dying from childbirth fever in
1894, Cleary became dependent on the morphine
that her doctor had given her to relieve
the pain. She battled ill health as well as addiction
throughout her life, finally admitting herself
to the Elgin Asylum for the Insane for
drug treatment. After her treatment she separated
from her husband and dedicated herself
to writing, insisting on supporting the children's
private schooling. She died of heart
failure in Chicago on July 16, 1905, at age
forty-one, just as she had begun negotiating
with publisher Houghton Mifflin on a collection
of her short stories. It was never published.

Throughout her lifetime Cleary wrote hundreds
of stories, which appeared in such diverse
outlets as the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan,
and McClure's. The best of them
are about early Plains settlers, especially the
men and women in rural villages. Many of
them are realistic or naturalistic depictions of
the hardships of western pioneers. Others,
however, are humorous and satirical portrayals,
gently mocking social pretensions and the
idealized Cult of True Womanhood.